edressed and
compensation found in any new creations of the kind. The power of
forming strong praeterites is long ago extinct; probably no verb which
has come into the language since the Conquest has asserted this power,
while a whole legion have let it go. For example, 'shape' has now a weak
praeterite, 'shaped', it had once a strong one, 'shope'; 'bake' has now
a weak praeterite, 'baked', it had once a strong one, 'boke'; the
praeterite of 'glide' is now 'glided', it was once 'glode' or 'glid';
'help' makes now 'helped', it made once 'halp' and 'holp'. 'Creep' made
'crope', still current in the north of England; 'weep' 'wope'; 'yell'
'yoll' (both in Chaucer); 'seethe' 'soth' or 'sod' (Gen. xxv. 29);
'sheer' in like manner once made 'shore'; as 'leap' made 'lope'; 'wash'
'wishe' (Chaucer); 'snow' 'snew'; 'sow' 'sew'; 'delve' 'dalf' and
'dolve'; 'sweat' 'swat'; 'yield' 'yold' (both in Spenser); 'mete' 'mat'
(Wiclif); 'stretch' 'straught'; 'melt' 'molt'; 'wax' 'wex' and 'wox';
'laugh' 'leugh'; with others more than can be enumerated here{192}.

{Sidenote: _Strong Praeterites_}

Observe further that where verbs have not actually renounced their
strong praeterites, and contented themselves with weak in their room,
yet, once possessing two, or, it might be three of these strong, they
now retain only one. The others, on the principle of dismissing whatever
can be dismissed, they have let go. Thus 'chide' had once 'chid' and
'chode', but though 'chode' is in our Bible (Gen. xxxi. 36), it has not
maintained itself in our speech; 'sling' had 'slung' and 'slang' (1 Sam.
xvii. 49); only 'slung' remains; 'fling' had once 'flung' and 'flang';
'strive' had 'strove' and 'strave'; 'stick' had 'stuck' and 'stack';
'hang' had 'hung' and 'hing' (Golding); 'tread' had 'trod' and 'trad';
'choose' had 'chose' and 'chase'; 'give' had 'gave' and 'gove'; 'lead'
had 'led' 'lad' and 'lode'; 'write' had 'wrote' 'writ' and 'wrate'. In
all these cases, and more might easily be cited, only [of] the
praeterites which I have named the first remains in use.

Observe too that in every instance where a conflict is now going on
between weak and strong forms, which shall continue, the battle is not
to the strong; on the contrary the weak is carrying the day, is getting
the better of its stronger competitor. Thus 'climbed' is gaining the
upper hand of 'clomb', 'swelled' of 'swoll', 'hanged' of 'hung'. It is
not too much to anticipate that a time will come